


take a sad song

by sparklyturtle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: POV Ginny Weasley, Post-Hogwarts, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 13:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17767862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklyturtle/pseuds/sparklyturtle
Summary: -Monday 5th October, 1998-The Daily Prophet reports that the Boy Who Lives has vanished, unseen by the Wizarding World. Both Weasley and Granger refuse to comment, but both seem shaken at the sudden disappearance, Lucinda Knight reports. More to follow in tonight’s issue.





	take a sad song

Harry Potter is missing.

-

 

_ Monday 5th October, 1998 _

The Daily Prophet reports that the Boy Who Lives has vanished, unseen by the Wizarding World. Both Weasley and Granger refuse to comment, but both seem shaken at the sudden disappearance, Lucinda Knight reports. More to follow in tonight’s issue.

 

-

 

_ Saturday 17th October, 1998. _

No letters.

Not an owl, nor a muggle postman appears at the front door of the Burrow. No one hears a sound. 

Ginny’s nails are stubs, her eyes red and raw as she cries away her worries.

Ron seems unfazed, claiming that it’ll be fine.

“He’s gone through plenty before, he knows how to look after himself.”

That’s a bullshit excuse, she knows. They’re all panicked at the lack of contact, no matter what her brother’s blasé facade says.

 

-

 

_ Sunday 1st November, 1998. _

He doesn’t appear for his parents’ anniversary. No one hears anything, or catches a glimpse of him, but a large wreath and bouquets of flowers appear on the grave in Godric’s Hollow, Hermione informs following a swift check. 

The Prophet tries to get ‘Potterwatch’ going, but are promptly sued by one Lee Jordan, who claims “that was a thing when people relied on the idea that he was alive. You lot are just sticking your oar in where it’s not needed or wanted, as bloody usual.”

 

-

 

_ Friday 19th February 1999 _

Teddy Lupin turns one on a Wednesday, and a brand new  _ Nimbus Jr. _ arrives on Thursday, neatly wrapped and signed from  _ Hazza _ , with a mountain of miscellaneous toys and sweets in tow. 

There’s a party on the Friday, with family friends and his nana and a large chocolate cake with one huge wand-shaped candle in the centre. A piece of cake has to be reserved for his godfather, as insisted by Dora, and Ginny becomes more suspicious by the second.

 

_ - _

 

_ Tuesday 2nd March, 1999 _

He misses Ron’s nineteenth, a quiet affair with family and an empty chair beside a one-eared twenty-one year-old. Ron seems unbothered, but Hermione pulls him into a corner to hand him a carefully-wrapped present and a huge smile plasters itself on his face. He refuses to let anyone see it- especially his sister- and Hermione insists it’s not from her. 

The Daily Prophet continues its Potter segment, leading with conspiracies that this is all leading to some evil plan of the Chosen One’s. (Lee Jordan’s radio programme has created a new segment of its own:  _ Prophetically Thick.) _

 

_ - _

 

_ Sunday 2nd May, 1999 _

May starts solemnly.

It is an anniversary of peace, but also the anniversaries of countless loved ones.

Ginny can’t recall if she’d ever seen her world so quiet, in all her nearly eighteen years. She stays at home and holds her dad’s hand, sweating in an oversized green jumper with a large  _ F  _ emblazoned on the chest. Percy wears the same, one from a different year of supplies, mum cradled against his chest. The boys are in the kitchen, with Charlie home for the week just to hold onto his siblings for a little while, thankful and sorrowful for the one’s he has left. 

She wonders where Harry is. She wonders how he’s coping with this day, a year since his own death. She wonders if he even knows what day it is, wherever he is and whatever he’s doing.

She wonders when he’ll come home so she can ask him.

 

-

 

_ Friday 30th July, 1999 _

They go out for Neville’s nineteenth, one big party in his new flat in the middle of London for every ex-Hogwarts student they could find. They drink and dance until the early hours of the morning. 

The birthday-boy is embarrassed at the attention, his hair tousled and his face flushed from a combination of alcohol and the fact that Hannah Abbott has spent the majority of the night sat on his knee. 

By sunrise most of them are passed out, only Ginny and Luna accompanying him to sit on the roof with mismatched mugs of tea, legs dangling over the edge. 

“Hannah seemed friendly,” the ginger remarks as Luna giggles into her drink. 

“She’s off to Berlin next week,” Neville slurs, tipping his mug so half the drink falls out. “She’s got some apprent’ship there to be a law… person.”

“I’m going to Zimbabwe next week,” Luna says quietly. “I sent a portfolio thing into the Scamander Foundation a few months ago and they liked it so I’m off on their latest expedition.”

The other two nod, neither saying a word. No one ever expected Luna to stay, and after the years she’d had, they wouldn’t ever dare to try and stop her.

“It’s Harry’s birfday now,” Neville hiccups. 

“D’you think he’ll come back for it?”

“Doubt it.”

“I hope he’s okay.”

“Me too, Nev.”

-

 

_ Wednesday 29th September, 1999 _

Ron throws his sister a key and tells her to pick up the brooms he’d left in Grimmauld Place. He offers no explanation as to why he needs brooms or why he’d left them in London, and when she asks why he can’t get them he mumbles something about being busy and gets disapparates on the spot when she tries to argue.

Clerkenwell is quiet for an early morning, save for the few muggle parents running their kids to school. It suits for her to cast the necessary charm to reveal the house- one of the most pretentiously pure-blood things about the entire house, she always reckoned. 

The door creaks and groans as she turns the key and pushes it open, but she’s shocked at the sight that meets her. The musty old carpet has been removed from the hallway, revealing brighter hardwood floors hidden beneath. The dark hallway is painted a pale yellow, nearing magnolia. She’s stuck to the spot when she sees the portrait at the bottom of the stairs, scrubbed white and streaky by something, finally silencing the awful woman enchanted inside. 

She’s speechless as she places a hand on the doorknob of the drawing room, carefully pushing it forward. The room is empty save for a few pots of paint, an old armchair and a couple of bed sheets thrown across the floor. Half the wallpaper is peeling off, the Black family tree being pulled away from the wall strip by strip. A scraper sits on the mantelpiece-

The door into the dining room opens into the room, and Ginny immediately jumps into battle stance. Her wand clatters to the ground when a bespeckled, dark-haired young man appears with a mug in hand.

“Gin?”

She can’t speak as he calmly put the mug down on the floor, wiping his hands on his paint-covered old shirt while never taking his eyes off her. 

“What are you-” he tries, frowning as he searches for the best question. “How’d you get in? I had the door locked-”

“Ron,” she rasps, holding up the key in her hand.

“Course,” he rolls his eyes. “Subtle as ever. I knew giving him that was a-”

“Is this where you’ve been hiding?” she asks, sudden anger rising in her throat. 

“Here?” he frowns. “I’m only here a few days-”

“So where is it you vanished to then?” she snaps, snatching her wand off the ground and holding it close to her side.

“I went traveling.”

“ _ Traveling?” _

“I went to the States,” he looks mildly uncomfortable at her menacing stare. “Kingsley helped me wrangle an American licence and I-”

“You can’t expect me to believe that.”

“I just drove around,” he shrugs, leaning against the armchair. “Lived like a muggle, picked up hitchhikers-”

_ “Merlin _ , what good would that do?” Ginny cries, throwing her hands in the air. 

“Magic felt  _ tainted _ ,” he frowns, staring at the wall across from him. “I wanted to get away from everything and not have to think about the consequences of my actions. No pressure, free for the first time in my life.”

Her eyes go wide and her mouth stays shut. She wants to hear this, whatever it is he has to say.

“It was nice to just be  _ Harry _ ,” he says, tapping his fingers against his thigh. “Just another face in the crowd, yknow?”

She nods but still doesn’t say anything. She’s not entirely sure if he wants a response or to just tell his story, so she decides silence is the safest move. 

“I picked up a veteran one day,” he smiles, but his brows are still furrowed and his eyes are getting glassy. “Steve. He’d fought in Vietnam and he’d seen a lot. Told him I’d been a soldier too. Told him about it being hard to adjust to being  _ normal _ after you thought you’d die before you got a chance to do anything other than fighting. 

“Couldn’t believe how young I was,” he shakes his head, tears beginning to fall. “He, uh, told me lots of  _ good stuff _ , and I nearly wrecked the car ‘cause it hit me that hard. There was a day when I pulled over, must’ve been in about June, and we were somewhere in Arizona- middle of the desert, like- and I was sitting on the ground when all these flowers, these  _ daisies _ , Gin, started sprouting up-”

“Daisies?” 

“Yeah!” he laughs, looking up with wet eyes and a snotty nose. “Like my mum, saw that in one of Snape’s memories, that’s how mum started doing magic!”

Ginny’s crying too at this point, startled at how quickly she understood his mind and how immediately her anger disappeared. The link to his mum only made him cry more, she notices, but she’d never seen him cry over his parents, she didn't think. 

“I-” he tries again, his voice croaky and caught somewhere in the back of his throat. “It felt pure and  _ good  _ and-”

He exhales deeply, rubbing his hands over his face.

“I’m so sorry, Gin,” he says, refusing to look at her as he shakes his head. “I just, I had to escape, I was so.. So stuck, and now- I can see  _ something _ , something after the war, like a light at the end of the tunnel-”

She attacks him with a hug, arms pulling him close as possible and hands in his hair. He breaks down, heavy arms wrapping themselves round her.

It didn’t matter that he hadn’t kept in touch, none of it mattered, because he was back and he was safe and whatever he’d experienced over the past year had helped him heal. This poor, broken boy was being let heal and be normal in a world that had never let him be safe and ordinary, so whatever it took, none of it mattered to Ginny. 

He’s home, she thinks. The rest can follow.

**Author's Note:**

> chapter title from 'Hey Jude' by the Beatles, inspired by that sad tumblr post?


End file.
